Cypress Lakes National Art Honor Society students gather around their finished mural, a digitally enhanced self-portrait originally created by student Roxana Kazemi.

Taking Their Painting To The Streets In Annual Artfest

Cypress Springs and Cypress Lakes high school art students traveled to downtown Houston the weekend of Nov. 21-22 to participate in the Via Colori street painting festival. Celebrating its 10th anniversary and sponsored by The Center for Hearing & Speech, the festival continued the legacy of raising funds to support the hearing and speech impaired and give recognition to budding artists. The event attracted more than 25,000 participants last year and even more this year who enjoyed artistry expressions free of charge.

“It was a great event, artists from all over the world came just to help raise money … there were a lot of fun activities not just chalk drawings. There were performances, lots of food trucks and all sorts of artwork from 2D to 3D,” said Daniela Obregon, Cypress Springs art club vice president.

Cypress Lakes senior Alexandria Guerrero and Cypress Springs sophomore Adriana Herrera were among a select group of students from 30 Houston-area high schools who participated in the Via Apprendista section of the festival. Via Apprendista allows budding young artists to showcase their work alongside professional artists.

The Center for Hearing and Speech has provided mural space for Cypress Lakes students under the supervision of art teacher Lee Ann Carrier for the past eight years, since she was one of the original mural artists for the first Via Colori event 10 years the school’s 2015 participation in the event.

“The Center has been very supportive of our students,” Carrier said. “Former coordinator of the event Katherine Boyette mentioned that they like how our students get organized and all cohesively create designs that are colorful and eye-catching.”

Cypress Lakes students also had the honor of paying tribute to one of the Via Colori event coordinators, Lisa Benitez, who recently passed away.

The school was given a second square for a design of its choice, and senior photography student and NAHS treasurer Roxana Kazemi’s concept was chosen — a digitally enhanced self-portrait. Twenty Cypress Lakes NAHS students worked two days to complete two 10-foot by 10-foot murals, one of which paid respect to Benitez.

“It is an honor to be a sponsor of such talented and hard-working students who gave their weekend to help produce this memorial piece to Lisa Benitez,” Green said.

“The students contribute to the community through art and it’s nice that you can do so much through art,” said Theresa Burgess, Cypress Springs art club sponsor.

Cypress Lakes High School senior Alexandria Guerrero created this 10-foot by 10-foot mural for the Via Apprendista section of the Via Colori street painting festival.